Drunken Gentle Fist
by AngelAnimefan
Summary: Naruto's about to figure out that Lee isn't the only natural practitioner of drunken fist... NaruHina. Finally Completed
1. Chapter 1

Brand new story for me, updates should be up once every week or so, hopefully. But I've got a job now that might have me working the graveyard shift some weeks, so we'll see if it interferes with this story. This story should only go on until the end of the summer as I'm going off to U of A in September. Well, hope you enjoy the story. Please read and review.

Summary: Lee isn't the only natural practitioner of drunken fist… NaruHina.

* * *

**Drunken Gentle Fist**

**Chapter one- ****Hinata: sacrificial lamb, drunk, and kick ass woman!**

A group of four people stood in front of a closed door, none of them seeming to want to make a move. The object of their consternation seemed to be the fact that on the handle of the door hung a note saying, "Hokage busy doing paperwork, come back later." Having on several occasions mistakenly come, rather noisily in, the group of ninja had learned quickly that, at least in their experiences, whenever the Hokage put that sign up it meant one thing: she was taking a nap. What they found out even quicker was that the Godaime, the legendary Tsunade-hime, hated being awoken from said nap, and the one who awoke her would be at the receiving end of one of the things that made her legendary; enough strength to crumble boulders.

One of the two boys in the group, the one with red triangles on his cheeks and a feral look to him, stepped back a bit, with a look of resolution on his face.

"Well, I think that it's obvious who needs to be the one to barge in." Kiba said.

He put a consoling hand on his lavender-eyed team mate's shoulder, she looked at him in disbelief. Kurenai put a hand to her temple soothingly, but it did nothing to alleviate the annoyed look on her face.

"Kiba… honestly, how can you sacrifice a team mate so easily?" She asked him.

Shino remained stoic as ever but then again Kiba never knew what went through that guy's head. Kiba started to sweat under his team's scrutiny.

"Come on, who is Tsunade least likely to get extremely pissed off at, a loud guy such as myself, or sweet, innocent Hinata?" He said, in his defence.

Kurenai took that into consideration, it did actually make some sense. Of course there was the argument that Tsunade, in her still-drowsy state made no differentiation between people, in that case they would be sending sweet, innocent Hinata to an untimely death. Kurenai shrugged, taking the chance, the Hokage's recreational gambling habits must be rubbing off on her. Kiba grinned and quickly shoved the blue-haired girl inside the office.

The eighteen year old chuunin sighed, albeit quietly. Kiba did not usually take advantage of her inability to object against her team's decisions, but when he did, it was only for the most unsavoury of tasks. As she raised her eyes to Tsunade's desk, she found, to her surprise, that the Hokage was actually doing paperwork.

"Ah, Hinata, hello." Tsunade said, smiling.

After not hearing any thrashing, her team cautiously entered the room. Seeing them all there, Tsunade practically threw her paperwork off the desk, looking as though she were desperately happy to see them. Kurenai looked as though she were suspicious of Tsunade's jovial appearance, but went to the mission debriefing.

"The mission was successful, we encountered some minor problems with mid-level sound nin but we escaped the situation before any superiors could be informed." She said.

Tsunade nodded before standing up.

"Well, I'll be expecting the full report on my desk by Friday, but for now… Congratulations team eight on another successful mission!" She commended them.

All the members of the team smiled, even Shino, although no one could tell. Tsunade stepped away from her desk and a pile of forms almost fell.

"Great, now let's go celebrate! Sake's on me!" She said, enthusiastically.

She slung an arm around both Kiba and Kurenai; everyone looked to her in disbelief.

_I've hardly ever seen her out of her office and now she's going to buys drinks for us!_ Hinata thought, confused.

Kurenai gave the Hokage an exasperated look.

"Tsunade-sama, do you think that would be… appropriate, considering the volume of work you have to do?" She said, feeling weird that she was reproaching the Hokage.

Tsunade now wore a desperate look as she clutched Kurenai's arm.

"Please… I only managed to get away from Shizune; she's making sure that I don't have any fun until I finish that mammoth sized pile of paperwork. Seriously. I haven't gone to the bathroom for ten hours."

Kurenai sighed and relented.

And so here she was, Hyuuga Hinata, age 18, with her team mates and the Hokage, drinking glass after glass of sake, all on Jiraiya's tab for doing something to Godaime that the she wished not to discuss, and, knowing his reputation, Hinata had not wanted to hear. Although she was sitting with other people, she wasn't feeling talkative. Maybe it was the sake, but she just started feeling depressed.

Against her will, she began to remember a rather aggravating event that occurred earlier that week. She had managed to get her feelings about Naruto in order, enough to do something about it. As she recalled the memory, her head sunk low onto the table.

She had asked him to meet her at an unused training ground, and there he was, quite a bit taller than her, still with a head full of yellow spikes and his trademark whisker birthmarks. He smiled at her when she arrived.

"Hey, Hinata, what did you want? Did you want to train?" He asked.

"Um, no, I… I wanted to tell you something…" She could feel her heart rate start to quicken and her face heat up.

He cocked his head, confused at her hesitance, but attentive. She willed herself to stand up straight and look him in the eye.

"N-Naru…"

She sighed, she couldn't stutter now, not in saying this. She calmed herself and started over.

"Naruto, I… love you!" she burst out.

He smiled warmly at her, even though she stood stock-still, she could feel herself melt.

"Hinata, I love you too…"

She sucked in her breath and held it, shocked.

"…I love all my friends!"

Hinata caught herself before she collapsed and mentally readied herself once more.

"No, I mean, you're precious to me…" she started.

"Yes, you're one of my precious people too, along with Sakura, Lee, Gaara, Neji…" Naruto interrupted.

She grit her teeth, was she going to have to explain her way through this?

"No, my love for you is the kind that a woman can feel for a man." She explained.

Naruto thought a bit about this.

"Yeah, the friendship between a man and a woman is different than between two guys, right? Less hitting… but anyway, I get it Hinata, and I will always cherish our special friendship." He said to her.

She looked at him disbelievingly.

"I…uh… have to go." She muttered, quickly leaving.

As Naruto watched her retreating form, he couldn't help thinking to himself, _I wonder why Hinata's upset?_

Hinata took another gulp of sake, ignoring her friends' antics… well, Kiba's antics, anyway. The sake slid into her stomach, creating a warm sensation that spread. She felt so hot, boiling practically. She finished her sake, made some excuse to Kurenai, who was too busy trying to stop Tsunade from gambling away her Hokage robes to listen, whereas Kiba was too busy flirting with a random kunoichi and Shino… she wasn't sure, but she thought she had seen him down some sake and stumble into the girl's washroom.

Hinata left the bar. The cool night's breeze was welcome, although she was still rather warm. She stumbled down the street before wondering where she had left her house. Although she wasn't given the luxury of drunkenly searching for her house, as she bumped into someone and was knocked to the ground.

"Oh, sorry about that, Hinata."

Hinata raised her eyes to the person who bumped into her and saw the exact spiky blond haired youth she had been thinking of.

"Oh, ish you." She slurred.

He smiled at her. He was wearing his jounin uniform for once and looked scuffed up.

"Just came back from my mission, Oba-chan wasn't even there, probably out at some bar getting drunk." He explained.

"Ya don't shay?"

"So, what have you been up to, Hinata?" Naruto asked her brightly.

She raised her eyebrow at him.

"Jush thinking about that talk we had the other day… stupid Naruto…"

His eyes widened at the insult from, of all people, Hinata.

"What?"

"You heard me… I couldn't have said it more plainly… everyone in this whole village knows exshept you…" She said, with drooping eyes, growing frustration was apparent on her face.

Naruto gave her a confused look. Hinata was sure acting strange, usually she could only slip in a few words before she'd start stuttering, but now she was talking more than he was. He didn't really know what she was talking about, but what he did know was…

"Hinata, you're drunk." He concluded.

"You can tell that, but you can't tell my feelings? Stupid boy, I should teach you a lesson…" She said, getting in a wobbly jyuuken stance.

Naruto looked on in amazement.

"Hinata, I'm not going to fight you when you're drunk!" he said, as though this were outrageous.

She made no note of his outrage, instead, she rushed at him. She hit his right arm and closed a couple tenketsu. Once Naruto figured out that she was serious, he started to defend himself against her. He was amazed as he found that he was having a hard time protecting himself.

_How can she even properly use her chakra when she's so drunk?_ He wondered.

He started to panic when he found out that he was unable to reopen his tenketsu, just what was Hinata doing? Hinata soon managed to overcome his defence and closed the chakra holes in his left arm so that he now could move neither arm. Suddenly she completely stopped fighting him, he looked at her, amazed.

"Why am I even fighting you, I looove you…"

Naruto momentarily wondered if closing the chakra holes in his arms was a strategic move as Hinata moved closer to him. The moonlight gave Hinata's long navy blue hair a lovely sheen and made her already pale skin seemingly glow. Hinata leaned over, delicately placed her lips over his and kissed him. She had never kissed him before, what was wrong with her? When they parted, Naruto's mouth was slightly open in shock, while Hinata seemed thoughtful.

"Oh, right, now I remember why I was mad at you… stupid Naruto!" she exclaimed before striking him once more.

After being satisfied that he wouldn't be getting up anytime soon, Hinata dropped him at his front door, and a foot away, promptly passed out. She wouldn't have remembered where her house was anyway. Naruto heard her fall and the last thought he had before reaching oblivion was: _Hinata's awesome!_


	2. Chapter 2

Thanks to everyone who reviewed last chapter, and those that put my story on their story alerts list and favourites list. I have to say that I'm rather satisfied with this chapter, especially the ending, I trust it will make you giggle. Next chapter will be in a week or so, and don't forget to read and review! Now without further ado, I give you the second chapter of Drunken Gentle Fist.

* * *

**Drunken Gentle Fist**

**Chapter two- Damn you, sake**

Hinata awoke the next day blurry-eyed and more tired than she had been when she had passed out. She groaned and changed positions, trying to get back to sleep, but she found, to her irritation, that sleep would not come, despite her tiredness. The reason had to do with the smell of mist, leaves, and ramen, certain scents that she had long since started to associate with a certain ninja, but why these smells persisted in her own room was beyond her. Suddenly she sat up straight and really opened her eyes.

This was not her room. This was not her bed. These were not her sheets… they were Naruto's. Right now her memories of last night were quite muddled, all she remembered was that she had gotten drunk off her ass and then she met up with Naruto…

_Oh. My. God. _

Panicking, she looked down on herself. She saw, to her relief that she still had her clothes on, minus her jacket. She sighed and got out of the bed. She wandered into the kitchen, where she found Naruto, back towards her. He seemed to be making breakfast, humming a bit while doing so. If Hinata were still drunk, she would have sneaked up to him, wrapped her arms around his waist, then when he turned around in surprise, pulled him into a lovely three and a half minute kiss, but she wasn't.

"Naruto…" she said, trying to sound calm, although her mind was racing to remember anything that happened last night.

He quickly turned around. When he saw her, his cheeks gained a light shade of pink, Hinata took it as a sign that not every one of her actions last night was wholesome. He tried to cover his blush with a radiant smile, and she felt her own face heat up. She had to admit, it helped.

"Ah, Hinata, so you're up already? I expected you to sleep for longer than that after last night." He said.

"I couldn't fall back asleep…" She muttered.

"I made you breakfast! It's not ramen, but I'm told that other people don't normally eat ramen for breakfast, it's a little weird to me, but I guess it's okay." He said, shrugging as though wondering why people would bother with anything other than ramen.

He had her sit at his dining room table and set a plate in front of her and himself. A glob that looked like an eight year old's failed science experiment sat on her plate, she looked to Naruto's plate and found an identical glob. It looked as though the concoction was supposed to be French toast, although it was a far cry from any French toast Hinata had ever seen. Though her stomach churned, she smiled at Naruto.

"Thank you for breakfast, it looks great." She lied.

He grinned at her, proudly, somewhat like a child. Hoping that the meal wouldn't make her sick, she ate a bite. The French toast didn't actually taste bad; it just tasted like normal French toast. She had no idea how Naruto had managed to make it look so unappealing, though, and she would rather not ponder on how. While they ate, they mostly stayed silent, Hinata concentrating on her plate, in uncertainty over whether she should be embarrassed by anything she did last night.

"You know Hinata…"

At the sound of his voice, she raised her eyes to his. Naruto was leaning back in his chair with a look of respect on his face. She didn't know how to take this rarely seen look so she just replied.

"Yeah?"

He leaned forward, with a serious look on his face.

"…last night…"

Hinata felt a blush coming on as in her mind she finished his sentence.

"…_you really were a good kisser." _

"…_why did you start to take off all your clothes?" _

"…_I didn't know you were so flexible!" _

She leaned forward, as she mentally leaned back.

"…YOU WERE AWESOME!" Naruto yelled with fervor, his serious demeanor falling away.

Her eyes widened at witnessing his enthusiasm. She leaned back a little, feeling more uninformed than ever.

"Um… what do you mean? I don't really remember everything that happened last night…" she said.

Naruto paused.

_So, she doesn't remember when she…_ _Well, it's all for the best, I mean, of course Hinata would never do that normally!_

"What was so awesome about you last night, you ask, Hinata?" He said rather calmly.

Though Hinata was reasonably certain that she hadn't done anything improper last night, Naruto's behaviour led her to think that last night she had done something that he would think was cool like pulling a prank, mouthing off to someone, or fighting someone. But of course she couldn't have possibly fought someone last night, as she didn't have even a bruise as far as she could tell.

"Well, when I saw you, you mentioned that you were thinking about the talk we had the other day, and then you called me stupid, and then you said a whole bunch of stuff that I didn't really get, and then I was like, "Hinata, you're drunk!" and then you started fighting me." He said, without a pause.

Hinata felt like she had swallowed a brick. She had fought him! Sure, she had been annoyed by his inability to realize that she had been confessing her love to him, but not enough to actually fight him.

_Damn you, sake. _

"I'm sorry, Naruto …" she said, feeling mortified.

At that Naruto looked confused.

"Huh? Why should you be sorry, you won!" He said, not knowing that it only made Hinata's mortification worse.

_Oh god, one day I say I love him, the next day WHAP! I beat him up…_

"I didn't even know that you were a master of drunken fist, it's so cool! So… I… uh, I was wondering…" he said, looking a little embarrassed.

Hinata, still shocked into mortification, nodded numbly.

"…Will you train me in drunken fist!" he asked, looking excited.

She looked at him dumbly, not sure whether to feel confused or relieved that he wasn't mad.

"Um… I don't think that you can train for that…" she said.

Naruto drooped a bit, but then brightened.

"Well then, could I fight against your drunken fist again? It was amazing, I couldn't even defend myself against you!" He said, proudly.

She was speechless. Basically, Naruto was asking if he could get her drunk to fight her, but if she did get drunk again, who knows what she would do. She desperately wanted to save herself from the future embarrassments that she may face, but she was in conflict with the fact that she hated saying no to Naruto.

"I'm not sure, Naruto. I don't want to do something embarrassing…"

He grinned.

"I'm sure you won't, Hinata, and if you do… I'm sure I won't mind…" He said, without thinking.

Hinata turned red. Naruto feigned innocence while internally slapping his head when he realized how that sounded.

"I…er… I'll think about it." She said.

"Great! If you decide to go along with it, I'll pay for the drinks, and, to sweeten the deal, if you win again, I'll treat you to ramen!" He announced, as though this last bit should be the deal breaker.

Hinata felt the urge to laugh at his enthusiasm over the whole thing. Then she remembered something she had been wondering.

"Naruto, what happened after the fight?"

"Well, after you beat me, you dragged me home and dropped me on my doorstep, then both you and I passed out. After some hours, I woke up, dragged you off my floor and put you in my bed because I knew that if I brought you passed out to your house, your family would kill me." He explained.

At the mention of her family, Hinata's eyes widened considerably.

"Come to think of it, right before we reached Konoha, I sent Neji a letter saying that I would be back yesterday! He's going to think something went wrong." She said, looking worried.

"We'll just have to bring you back and explain what happened." Naruto said.

They left Naruto's apartment and made their way up to the Hyuuga complex. A stone-faced Neji met them at the gate.

"Hinata-sama… with Naruto…" Neji's mouth formed a straight line on his face.

"Neji-niisan…" Hinata started.

"It's fine, Neji, Hinata just got plastered last night so, being the gentleman I am, I brought her over to my place!" Naruto said, as though this made everything alright.

The kunoichi was slack-jawed and blushing, while Neji stayed stoned faced, except for a twitch in his right eye.

"So… you're telling me that you brought my cousin home and took advantage of her?" Neji asked, the twitching getting worse as he spoke.

"No, I'm saying that she took advantage of ME, but we weren't at my apartment yet…"

At this comment, Neji was the one who was slack-jawed and blushing. He threw an accusatory look at Hinata, who just fervently shook her head.

"…and she did it well! Afterwards, I couldn't move for hours! She had to drag me back to my apartment."

Naruto just kept going on, not noticing Neji's building distress.

"And as soon as I woke up, I dragged her to my bed and then begged her to do it again. So really, you have nothing to worry about!" he finished.

Neji swooned and Hinata caught him before he hit the ground. Naruto looked confusedly at the scene.

"Hey, what's wrong with Neji?" he asked.

Hinata's face was pretty much as red as it could get.

"Well, he… um, just got a different meaning from your explanation, I'll explain how it really happened to him later." She said.

Naruto nodded, although confused, he thought that he had been quite straightforward.

"That's good. Hey, Hinata, make sure to really think seriously about letting me fight you, I would really be happy!"

She smiled and nodded.

"I will, I'll see you later, Naruto." She said, starting to drag Neji back to the complex.

Naruto waved goodbye and left.

If you didn't get the double meanings in the last part... I'm not going to be the one to explain it.


	3. Chapter 3

I know, I know, I'm late with this update... sorry about that. I'll put up the next chapter sometime this week to make up for it. It's just that I started night shift last week and when you're working from 11pm to 7am you don't really feel like going home and writing something. Consequently, pretty much all I've been doing for the past little while is sleep, eat, and go to work to wash gross clothes. So... uh, yeah, read and review. And thanks everyone who reviewed last chapter and added me to their fav/alerts.

* * *

**Drunken Gentle Fist**

**Chapter three- The Whirlwind Affair and the Three Hour Go-Fish Game**

"Hey, why are you charging so much for yakisoba, old man!"

The vendor gave him a look that clearly showed his disdain for Naruto's outrage.

"My prices are set, boy. You won't find a better deal in the village." He told the blond-haired shinobi.

Naruto pulled a disgusted face.

"Whaaat? Who would pay so much for your shitty yakisoba when they can have ramen for cheap!"

The man had an angry tic on his face, which had turned a lovely puce colour.

"Damn it, kid! Get the hell out of here!"

Naruto ran off and then grumpily wandered around the market, like he had been for quite awhile now. Today he had found out that he had no practices or missions, and he couldn't even bother Sakura because she was busy today bothering Ino about her "secret" boyfriend. He was supposed to relax and recover today from his high ranked mission a few days ago, but he was too restless to even think about lying around the house all day. So he had decided to check out the market in his utter boredom. Rather than a fun-filled day, what Naruto had discovered was that markets were **very** boring.

In a huff, he paused at a random stall that seemed to be selling porcelain figurines. He stared disinterestedly at a particular figurine that featured two miniature people holding hands and, apparently, picking flowers. On his way to the market, Naruto hadn't come across any of his friends that could entertain him for the rest of the day, even when he took the long way and then doubled back… no one. He sighed, feeling irritated. At this rate he would spend the whole day heckling vendors and looking at stupid porcelain figurines.

"AH! This will surely allow Neji's passion of youth to come forth in training! If this is not the best gift I will do five hundred laps around Konoha, one thousand leg kicks…"

Naruto's head snapped at the sound of a certain taijutsu expert's voice. He looked around and finally found Lee at a stand for ninja equipment, he appeared to be holding up a stretchy suit identical to the one he was wearing now, except in blue. Ecstatic to finally get away from the porcelain, even if it meant he was going to have to listen to Lee's youthful exuberance, Naruto made his way to the stand. Right when he was about to open his mouth to say hi, he got a surprise.

"Um… Lee, I'm not so sure that Neji-nii-san would like that…"

Naruto quickly ducked behind the stand. To put it simply, his mind was in a mess. Was Hinata on a… a… DATE… WITH LEE! Somehow Naruto couldn't peg them as a couple, Hinata with Lee didn't really seem right to him. He didn't know why, but it bothered him a bit, the only explanation in his mind was that he didn't appreciate Fuzzy Eyebrows having a girlfriend before he did, yeah, that was probably it.

But then again Lee had never talked badly of Hinata, he even had seemed fond of her, and they shared the common ground of being drunken fist prodigies… How could he have missed it before! Now it all seemed so obvious… they loved each other! For all Naruto knew, they could have had a whirlwind affair for years! How they had managed it under Neji's watchful eye, he didn't know. Naruto blushed at the thought of Hinata, of all people, having a whirlwind affair. Well… as long as they both loved each other, he was alright with it…

Having gathered himself, Naruto quickly got up and turned to the unsuspecting Hinata and Lee, whose only crime was shopping together; little did they know, they were having an affair.

"Yo! Lee, Hinata!" Naruto greeted them, grinning widely.

Upon seeing him, Hinata immediately blushed.

"N-Naruto, hi."

_Oh, she must be embarrassed that I found out about her affair… I better let her know that I won't tell everyone…_

"Ah! Naruto, I see your fiery youthfulness is ever intensifying!" Lee said.

Naruto grinned.

"I could say the same for you, Lee. So, what are you two up to…" He asked.

"We are combining our power of youth to come up with the perfect gift for Neji's birthday! Hinata enlisted my help early this morning, and I promised her that if I was unable to help her, I would do two hundred push-ups, six hundred sit-ups, two thousand leg kicks…"

Hinata sighed as Lee rattled on. In reality she had been pleaded to by Tenten to help Lee choose a good gift for Neji, as in the past years he had gotten too many "Gai" suits to count. She cringed as she remembered the one recurring picture taken at Neji's birthday parties, where he's holding a blue stretchy suit, with a nearly expressionless face, Lee is next to him doing a nice guy pose with one arm around the stoic Hyuuga. Each year the picture is the same, the only way, in fact, of telling that they aren't the same pictures are the maturation of the young ninja. Lee, still in mid-rant was suddenly interrupted by Naruto.

"Uh, Lee, sorry to interrupt, but I just have to borrow Hinata for a moment, alright?" He said, apologetically.

Lee watched, a bit confused, as Hinata was led away by Naruto. Hinata wondered vaguely why Naruto chose to word his sentence that way. Once they were a safe distance from the noisy market, he turned to her, a full-blown smile on his face; he stared at her for a little bit, without saying anything. Hinata felt herself blush at the attention.

"N-Naruto… what…?"

"So, when's the date?" he inquired.

Her eyes widened at the word. "Date"? He couldn't possibly be asking her for a date this way, could he? Or maybe he meant when were they going to train?

"D-do you mean when are you going to be able to spar against my drunken fist?" she asked, unsure.

Naruto waved his hand dismissively.

"No, no, I mean the wedding date… I **am** invited, right?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

She gave him a weird look.

"What wedding?"

His eyes widened.

"You mean you're going to elope, then? Well, I can see why, I can't imagine that the clan was terribly happy that you were marrying Lee…"

Hinata's mouth opened and closed, rather unattractively. She closed her eyes and sighed.

"What in the world are you talking about, Naruto? I'm not getting m-married… to Lee of all people!"

He looked a bit surprised, but then collected himself.

"Well, sorry, I guess I jumped to conclusions there, you must have only started this whirlwind affair…" he apologized.

She gaped at him.

"Whirlwind affair…?"

Naruto raised an eyebrow at her.

"You mean you're not even having a whirlwind affair? Well, have you confessed to him yet?"

"Naruto, I do not like Lee." she told him, firmly.

He smiled at her, as though humouring her.

"Hinata, you don't have to lie to me, I won't tell anyone about this, it's not my ninja way. In fact, I think that I'll even help you and Lee get together!" He said, sounding enthusiastic.

Panic arose in Hinata, if Naruto was left to conspire in ways to throw them together, who knows what he could do?

"No! I… I mean, that's not necessary because I don't like Lee, I like y-"

Naruto interrupted her.

"Don't worry Hinata, you can count on me!" He said, doing a nice guy pose, while running off.

She stood there for awhile, in stunned silence. Soon Lee had come over to check up on her.

"Hinata, what is the matter?" he asked, sounding a bit concerned.

She took awhile to respond, and when she finally did, she spoke disconnectedly.

"I'm in love with… an absolute idiot…"

* * *

Naruto grinned as he waited besides the door of room 210. Awhile ago he had pretty much stopped pulling pranks, but this one had been an exception, after all, it was for the sake of love. Earlier he had called both Lee and Hinata up and told them identical stories, that Iruka had forced him to clean up an old academy classroom, and then he had asked them if they could help him. He had asked them to meet him in room 210 at one o'clock, little did they know that they would be in that room for longer than they both would expect. 

"Naruto…"

He turned and saw that Hinata was there, right on time. He smiled at her, but she looked a little wary.

"Finally, you're here, he's been waiting awhile."

At that, she tried to take a step back, but found herself being pushed into the room by Naruto. The door closed in behind her with a click. She heard the door being locked.

"It's okay, Hinata, you can thank me later!"

The room was dark, so she fumbled for the light switch.

"Oh, Hinata, are you here to help clean the room too?"

At the middle of the room was Lee. Hinata sighed.

"I wonder when Naruto's going to let us out?" she wondered aloud.

* * *

Three hours later… 

"Okay guys, I'm coming in!"

The door creaked open and there stood a grinning Naruto.

"Well, I hope you guys had fun! But not too much fun…" he said, winking.

Hinata and Lee stepped out of the room, unspeaking. Hinata appeared calm but below the surface she was in full rage. She felt this sadistic need for blood that she had never felt before. Now she knew what Anko felt… all the time.

What happened after Naruto closed the door was that she had proceeded to tell Lee why he was locked in a room with her for who knows how long. When she had apologized to him, he shrugged it off and then asked her if she wanted to play go fish with some cards he had found. And so started the three hour long go fish game… Lee never seemed to tire of the game. Hinata, however, who did not like the game very much in the first place soon developed a deep loathe of it.

"Naruto?"

Still smiling, he turned to her.

"Yeah, Hinata?"

He wouldn't be smiling soon enough.

"Sake's on you, right?"

Delight spread across Naruto's face as he nodded his head fervently.

_Excellent._

_

* * *

_

Please read and review, and I promise that chapter 4 will be up near the end of the week, maybe Friday.


	4. Chapter 4

As promised, here's the latest chapter of Drunken Gentle Fist, and gasp, it's longer than usual too! I've actually been writing this story during my breaks at my work which is why this chapter's being released so quickly, but since I'm going off of night shift and onto late shift, I'm probably not going to do that anymore. But, I only have one more week of work and then I'm free! So, I'll be able to update again in a week or two. Thanks to everyone that reviewed last chapter and added me to their fav/alert list. Please read and review and hope you enjoy this chapter!

* * *

**Drunken Gentle Fist**

**Chapter four- Mr Smart-and-Serious**

Hinata hobbled into the training ground still brimming with rage. Naruto skipped along behind her, blissfully unaware of the typhoon that was about to be unleashed upon him. He went to the middle of the field and she stood a little bit away from him.

"Alright Hinata, you ready?" he asked her, getting into a stance.

He was answered by her activation of the byakugan. Naruto felt a shiver go down his spine as he saw the look she gave him, he could have sworn it was almost… bloodthirsty. But that couldn't possibly be right, could it? I mean this was Hinata not someone like Anko, right? Hinata got into her wobbly jyuuken stance. Naruto had provided plenty of sake beforehand, of which she gulped down quickly, while she still had all her murderous rage.

Hinata saw him shift his weight slightly, as though he was going to make a move, and at that moment, before he had a chance, she rushed towards him. She aimed for his upper left arm and ended up hitting his lower arm. Naruto, who had been caught by surprise leapt away from her, feeling the tenketsu in his lower arm had been sealed. He frowned at this disadvantage, so early on.

"Shit." He muttered, under his breath.

He noticed that, obviously, her aim was in no way precise, as the alcohol inhibited her hand-eye coordination, but, as with before, for some reason kyuubi's giant flux of chakra would not open the tenketsu.

_Well I guess I'm going to watch myself now that I'm sure it wasn't a fluke before…_

He launched himself towards Hinata, who managed to sidestep the attack and counter it. Naruto winced as he felt tenketsu in his side seal up. But he smiled soon as he saw an opening. Quickly, he threw a punch to where she was unguarded. As his fist connected, Hinata stumbled backwards a step and looked suddenly outraged. His smile fell off his face when he realised where his fist had connected… where it was still connected. Hinata bowed her head, he thought in embarrassment, but in reality, it was in a dark rage.

"Did you just punch my boob!"

His eyes widened greatly and he hurriedly pulled his fist away from her bosom.

"Uh… err… well… I much prefer to call it a breast, you see…" He didn't have time to finish his sentence as Hinata took this opportunity to express her feelings in a rather violent manner.

"Shhixty-uh… eight? No… shhixty two hands of… no that's not it…" she said, trying to remember the name of her attack.

"Oh what the hell, A MILLION HANDS OF HAKKE!"

At the end of her barrage that she unleashed unto him, Naruto fell to the ground, thoroughly defeated. He hurt all over and couldn't move much more than his head, he was happy that at least he hadn't fallen face down in the dirt. He saw Hinata leaning over him with what seemed to be an angry look on her face, but why would that be? Maybe she was angry with herself for defeating such a good-looking guy as himself. Just as he was going to tell her that she didn't have to be angry with herself, she spoke up.

"That's what you get for locking me in a room with Lee."

Naruto's mouth gaped.

"What! You don't like him? But I felt a real connection between you two!"

Hinata put a foot up on his chest.

"Shut. Up. If you lishened to me in the firsht place, you'd know who I like!" she yelled at him.

He mulled over that for a second.

"So… who do you like?"

Taking her foot off of his chest, she threw her hands up in exasperation. When she had gained a better control of her frustration, she kneeled next to him.

"You want to know who I like? Well, why didn't you say so! The guy I like is sooo smart, and serious. He really gets girls, too, even when they're not being direct." Hinata gushed, sarcasm leaking from her every word.

Naruto frowned, thinking of who she might like. He was so concentrated on thinking of the guy that he didn't notice when Hinata stumbled off, leaving him in the training field. She started making her way to her house, or at least where she thought her house was. On the way she stumbled into Neji. He looked at her, concerned when she seemed unable to stand up on her own.

"Hinata-sama, what's wrong?"

She felt drained of energy, but she drowsily met his gaze.

"Oh, nothing, Neji-nii-san. Naruto just locked me in a room with Lee, who made me play go-fish with him for hours…"

Neji gasped in horror as he assumed that "go-fish" was a euphemism for some sort of deviant sexual act. Hinata didn't realise at the time that this sentence would prompt Neji to react most violently to his birthday present from Lee, a set of cards with instructions on how to play go-fish. It was partly Lee's fault, as in the birthday card he told Neji to try playing it with Hinata, who was the best go-fish player that he had ever encountered. Neji zoned out a bit as every brotherly feeling inside him was screaming for Lee's blood. That is, until he heard her next sentence.

"And then Naruto kept pressuring me and pressuring me, and in the end I gave in and did what he wanted, but only after I got drunk, of course."

Neji's eyes widened.

"Hinata-sama! T-that's not p-proper for a lady such as yourself to speak of. Please, don't tell me any more!"

She seemed to ignore him.

"So I got nice and drunk while I was still feeling the way I was so that I'd be able to go through with it. But then he touched my boob… or breast, as he calls it, and in the end the whole thing was pretty exhausting."

To prove her point, she slumped over, sleep overcoming her. Neji sighed.

"Oh thank god."

Seeing the girl he was once thought of as innocent, Neji was able to think of one thing only.

"I hope I never have a daughter."

* * *

Meanwhile, Naruto was still contemplating who Hinata liked. Who did he know that was smart, serious, and really got girls? This guy was starting to sound pretty cool to Naruto. He had to be someone really cool for Hinata to like him, someone deserving. After awhile, he tested out his joints. He winced when he found that he still didn't have all that much mobility in his limbs, not even enough to try to sit up.

He sighed as he went back to his pondering. This smart and serious guy sounded like the kind of guy that Hinata would like, you know, kind of like her.

_I bet she wouldn't beat Mr Smart-and-Serious up so bad… _

He grimaced at that thought. For some reason he was starting to dislike this smart and serious guy, he sounded cool and all, but Naruto felt like Hinata was faced with too many serious things everyday, she needed someone that could make her laugh. He bet that Mr Smart-and-Serious couldn't make her laugh. Naruto suddenly came to a conclusion, when he found out who this Smart-and-Serious guy was, if he wasn't able to make Hinata laugh, then he wasn't the guy for Hinata.

Naruto tried once more to move his arms and legs, but he found himself still quite incapacitated.

"Damn it Hinata, what did you do?"

* * *

Sakura breathed in the cool night's air and smiled. Sometimes the simplest joys in life were the best. She had just come from Ino's house where they had talked about Ino's boyfriend and how they came to be. She sighed as she tried to imagine herself having someone like that; someone that she could share herself with. But these days that's all she could do: imagine. Ever since that fateful day, what little interest for other boys she felt was fleeting and insignificant. So she had to live through other people's love lives… at least until someone finally caught her attention.

As Sakura strolled through the training fields she suddenly heard a loud, abrupt sound. Feeling suddenly very alert, the sound had scared her; she had never been completely comfortable in the dark, even less when she was hearing weird sounds. She formed her hand into a fist as she searched the field for the sound, perhaps it was some sort of beast, the likes of which the world had never…

She heard the sound again and quickly found its source. She unclenched her fist and sighed in annoyance.

_Idiot. _

She kneeled next to the snoring Naruto and started shaking him to wake him up.

"Come on stupid, Tsunade-sama pays good money to make sure you fall asleep in a bed, not out in a training field."

He wasn't waking up. Sakura shook a little harder.

"Quit being so rough, Hinata. I didn't mean to touch you there…" Naruto mumbled.

Sakura froze. She didn't know whether to laugh or hit him. She decided to do neither.

"WAKE UP!"

Naruto woke up with a start. He seemed disoriented as he looked around, then up at the night's sky. Finally his gaze fell to Sakura, who raised an eyebrow at him.

"What are you doing here, in the middle of the night, sleeping?"

He smiled a bit before starting in on his story.

"So, let me get this straight: You got Hinata plastered in order to fight you after you had locked her in a room with Lee for three hours, and only after the fight, you found out that this had been a bad idea?"

He nodded.

"Seriously Naruto, I like the guy but I think that if anyone had to spend three hours locked in a room with him they'd go crazy."

Sakura sighed while he looked a bit sheepish.

"Anyway, what did Hinata have to say about this? You know… after she beat you up." She grinned a bit at the thought of the mild-mannered kunoichi beating up Naruto.

"Well… she told me that I deserved it for locking her up with Lee and then I asked her who she liked and she told me that if I had listened to her in the first place I would know who it was. Do you know what she was talking about or is this just some weird girl thing?" Naruto asked her, genuinely confused.

Sakura gave him a withering look; she had indeed heard of the failed confession.

_You have to be the dumbest shinobi alive. _

"No idea. But why are you taking such and interest in Hinata's love life anyway?"

Naruto was somewhat taken aback by the question, as he hadn't quite thought of that himself. After a few moments he decided he had better answer quick before Sakura got suspicious, but he didn't ask himself what she had to be suspicious of.

"Because I don't want her to end up with some loser!" he answered brashly.

She smiled, in a way it was sweet of him, but in reality his butting in was only putting a hamper on Hinata's love life. After that little passionate sentence, Naruto seemed to calm down quite a bit.

"And, also…"

His eyes softened and the words he used seemed to be well chosen, deliberate.

"Lately, maybe right before my last mission started, I've noticed that Hinata seems somehow sad or upset."

Sakura's attention was caught, it wasn't often that Naruto seemed so sensitive.

"I don't think it has anything to do with what's happening at home, because her relationship with her father and Neji seem to be going well. So I figured that it might be love trouble." He muttered.

Sakura sighed once more, Naruto was right on the mark but somehow he still managed to miss it completely. Naruto paused a bit until she implored him to continue.

"I don't really like seeing her like that, sort of lonely, you know? So I guess all of this is so that I can try to help her."

Naruto looked up to Sakura. She was giving him the oddest look, as if he should know something he didn't. Not liking that look and feeling an uneasiness that had nothing to do with Sakura, he decided to change the subject.

"Anyway, what did you do today? Did you have a shift at the hospital?"

Sakura shook her head.

"No, I went to see Ino-pig again today. She finally broke down and told me about her boyfriend."

Naruto wasn't all that interested, knowing Ino it would be some clone of Sasuke. He suppressed a yawn.

"Honestly who would have guessed that Shikamaru knew so much about girls? I mean he's smart and can be serious but I didn't suspect him to have a clue about girls. But just the other day he took Ino to…"

Naruto didn't hear the rest of her story, as he had picked up certain things suddenly clicked in his mind.

_Smart. Serious. Knows about girls._

Shikamaru, it was Shikamaru. Naruto suddenly sat up, ignoring the sharp pain that he felt from doing so.

"Naruto, what are-" Sakura started.

"Can't talk now, Sakura." He said, standing up.

After giving her a quick goodbye, he ran off.

Naruto couldn't believe it. Hinata… in love with Shikamaru! But he couldn't deny it, the evidence was right in front of him. Hinata had practically told him herself that she liked Shikamaru, and by the way that she had said it, Naruto bet that they were even going out. Anger roiled in at that thought; it was one thing to have two girls like you, it was another entirely to be dating both of them. Especially when one of the girls happened to be Hinata. Fury bubbled in his veins as he thought of Hinata crying at the realisation that her relationship with the Shadow user was all a lie.

_Shikamaru, you player. _

Naruto scoured Konoha, looking everywhere. He finally found his target coming out of a barbeque restaurant, accompanied by Chouji. The lazy ninja spared a look at Naruto, who seemed to be on the brink of committing some sort of violent crime.

"Uh… Naruto? Are you all…" he started, but a look in the blonde's eyes stopped him mid sentence.

"How could you do that to her, Shikamaru? I mean, that's just low."

Shikamaru raised his eyebrows slightly.

"Her? Who do you-" he was cut off once again.

"You're my friend, but she's my friend too, and I can't stand by watching my friends getting hurt." Naruto finished, his eyes narrowing.

Shikamaru and Chouji watched him, confusion apparent on both their faces. That confusion quickly changed to surprise when suddenly Naruto rushed at Shikamaru. The shadow user knew he needed to act fast, and so just before Naruto reached him, Shikamaru had managed to use shadow bind on him. He sighed in relief and tried to slow his beating heart, seeing an enraged Naruto come at you would make anyone's heart pound.

"Now, Naruto, I want you to clearly tell me what you think that I've done to warrant you attacking me."

Naruto huffed in indignation.

"As if you don't know."

"Humour me." Shikamaru told him, knowing he didn't have much time until the jutsu released him.

Scowling, the Kyuubi vessel explained.

"What you did to Hinata."

The dark haired boy gave him a weird look; he hadn't even seen Hinata in the last month, how could he have done something to her?

"And what, pray tell did I do to Hinata?"

Naruto reddened, but it was unclear whether it was out of embarrassment or rage. Perhaps it was a mixture of the two.

"You cheated on her with Ino!"

The shock of that one sentence was enough to freeze Shikamaru and make Chouji fall backwards onto his ass.

"W-what!"

"You know, I always thought you were an okay guy, Shikamaru, but I guess you proved me wrong…"

Naruto muttered something about two-timers.

"Naruto! I'm not cheating on Hinata, how can I when I never went out with her in the first place!" Shikamaru told him.

The normally calm Shinobi looked like a bird with ruffled feathers. Naruto looked at him suspiciously.

"Really?"

"It's true, Naruto, the only girl that Shikamaru's been seeing is Ino." Chouji, who had remained silent this whole encounter spoke up for his friend.

That seemed to placate Naruto. The look of anger on his face was replaced with a contemplative one. As he had seemed to calm down, Shikamaru released the shadow bind on Naruto.

"Oh, I see. Sorry for jumping to conclusions there. I'll see you later Shikamaru, Chouji."

Naruto left the confused friends and trudged off home with an uneasy thought on his mind.

_So Hinata has an unrequited love, who'd have known? Poor Hinata… _

_

* * *

_

Well that's it for today's update, please read and review.


	5. Chapter 5

Tenten to Neji, "Wanna play go fish

Okay, it's been… a little bit less than two years since I last updated… sorry? Well here's a chapter anyway.

**Chapter five- Compromising Situation**

Hinata woke up with a pounding headache and a dry mouth. Maybe she had overdone it a bit with the sake yesterday, but it had felt worth it at the time. She groaned wearily as she opened her eyes, bracing for the worst case scenario. The kunoichi sighed in relief when she found out that not only was she in her own room, but she also seemed to be mostly clothed. She sat up and slid her legs to the side of her bed, but couldn't find the will to stand up quite yet. As with her last encounter with sake, the events of the previous night were muddled, memories meshed together, they came in waves and some slid just out of her grasp. It aggravated her to no end that she had only a general sense of what happened yesterday. She knew that she had gotten drunk, to put it lightly, while she was full of murderous rage because of Naruto, and then she had fought Naruto.

Hinata bit her lip. Now that she wasn't angry anymore she was left with only guilt over having hurt Naruto just because of having reacted rashly to his well-meaning, if annoying actions. If she had waited a bit to cool off, instead of deciding to punish him for his denseness right away, she wouldn't be feeling guilty right now. Honestly, was this situation in any way a normal thing? How many girls her age beat up their crushes because they didn't realise the girls' obvious infatuations with them? Hinata bet that she was the only one, but if she had bothered to check the statistics, she would have found out that this happened to one in five girls.

Finally, she stood up. In a dark mood, she sighed. All she was doing by fighting Naruto was making him more confused about her feelings for him. Naruto… where was he now? At home? Maybe still lying in the training field? Or in the hospital?! She gasped at the thought, but surely she couldn't have beat the resilient young man so badly that it would warrant a visit to the hospital, could it? She shook her head to rid the thought from her head before she was completely upset by it. But still she vowed to check up on him today, after all who knew what-

Tap. Tap.

In the middle of pacing the room, Hinata froze at the sound. Her eyes darted to the source and found a smiling Naruto at her window. Her eyes widened drastically.

_Holy shit._

When he saw that she had noticed him, Naruto waved frantically. Instinctively, she tried to cover herself as best she could, but then she relaxed when she remembered that she was fully decent. Hinata sighed and tried to calm her beating heart, to little success. She went to the window and opened it. Naruto smiled even wider as he came through her window and stepped into her bedroom. It had seemed an innocent action, but suddenly the white-eyed kunoichi was struck with a thought.

_Naruto is in MY BEDROOM. _

As much as she didn't want it to, she felt her face heat up. She watched nervously as Naruto came a bit closer to her, looking as thought he had something to say.

"Hinata, I just wanted to say that I'm sorry about yesterday. I should have known that you didn't like Lee…"

He said his words softly, almost intimately, in a way that was totally unlike any side of Naruto she had ever seen. Hinata felt her heart beating fast again for a completely different reason than it had before.

"N-Naruto, it's all-"

"No, it's not all right. It was insensitive of me, I wasn't really thinking. I should have known who you liked from the start."

He took her hands in his and gave her an apologetic look which was mingled with another, indecipherable look. Hinata felt a mix of surprise, relief, and mortification. Did he really just find out that she liked him from her beating him up?

"S-so you really know who I like?" She asked him, wanting to believe it was true, but reluctant to actually do so.

Naruto smiled warmly at her. Hinata could have sworn that she saw concern in his eyes, but it was gone in a second.

"Come on, Hinata, it's a little obvious."

Her heart soared and she thanked the gods for Naruto's sudden realisation of her feelings for him, she had been starting to lose hope that he would ever find out.

"I mean, almost anyone could have guessed that you were in love with Shikamaru."

As her hope was suddenly crushed, she felt as though she herself had been crushed as well. She felt herself grow light headed and she swayed a bit on the spot.

"Hinata? What's wrong, are you still drunk?"

He came closer with a worried look, which turned into a surprised one when Hinata fell face forward into him. Instinctively, Naruto enveloped her in his arms, but the force of her hitting him drove him to fall backwards onto the floor. He lay sprawled on his back, with the kunoichi on top of him, and their faces ended up about an inch apart. Eyes wide, they stared at each other for a second before both of them went crimson. Yet, even with this awareness of how close they were to each other, neither of them made a move to separate. The lavender-eyed girl was quick to realise that the boy's hands were placed low on her back, a little bit too low for a friend to touch, whereas he was quick to notice that the girl's breasts, as he liked to call them, were in close contact with his own chest.

_I… I can feel everything…_

He tried not to let on that he had noticed such a thing, but it was hard when an object… well, two objects of male obsession were pressed against his chest. They were more full than he had expected them to be and felt oh-so-nice against him. He berated himself in his head, he wasn't supposed to be thinking this about Hinata; she was his friend and trusted him. So what if she had amazing breasts? All those were for was for feeding babies, not at all sexual. So what if they were so close that all he had to do was move his head up a little to be kissing her? He wouldn't kiss her. He couldn't.

_Because that wouldn't be right… would it?!_

Hinata moved her face a little closer to his, her eyes were halfway closed. Naruto slowly closed his own eyes, and it felt as though his body moved on its own, moving his face a little closer to hers. The gap was almost closed, they were a hair's breadth away from locking lips.

_Almost._ Hinata thought, anxiously.

CREAK.

The sound of the door opening made the two turn their heads to the noise. At the doorway stood Neji, tray with two cups held aloft. He appeared completely normal, the only indication that he was aware of the compromising position that Naruto and Hinata were in was the twitch in his right eye.

"Hinata-sama, I brought you some hangover tea." He said simply.

The kunoichi looked nervously at him, as though afraid he might blow up.

"Th-thank you, Neji-nii-san."

Neji set the tray inside the room and walked away, muttering something about it being too early in the morning for his blood pressure to spike. Naruto and Hinata looked at each other for a second after he left before they were at opposite ends of the room, both looking profusely embarrassed. They stayed silent for a bit. Then they both spoke at the same time.

"Um…"

"Uh…"

More silence.

"Hinata… do you want to get ramen?"

She looked over at the blonde, surprised for a moment. Then she looked away as she hid a small smile.

"Okay."

Hinata walked besides Naruto silently as the boisterous shinobi was being his usual self, he was seemingly unaffected by the recent memory of their close encounter. Naruto in reality was just trying to forget the encounter, knowing that he was going to have to deliver heart-breaking news to the girl. He paused after finishing the light-hearted story that he had been narrating for Hinata as he spared a lingering look to her, his brow creasing in worry. Unfortunately she caught the look and countered it with her own confused one.

"Is something wrong, Naruto?"

He put on a smile that completely erased the worry on his face and lifted an eyebrow at her.

"Something wrong? No, I was just debating whether I should have miso or pork ramen. What do you think, Hinata?"

She looked a little suspicious, but seemed to accept the answer.

"Pork." She told him.

He smiled even wider.

"Now that's just what I was thinking! Hinata, you never told me you were a mind read-"

Naruto stopped in mid-sentence as he saw something over her shoulders. His eyes widened in panic. Hinata did not miss his disconcertion.

"Naruto, what-"

He grabbed Hinata by the shoulders and started to steer her in a direction.

"Nothing, nothing at all. I just remembered that Ichiraku closes earlier today, so we should get there before the old man closes up."

It was a weak excuse and Hinata didn't believe him for a second, but she went along with him. Naruto sighed in relief as she complied. If they had stayed there then something completely horrible would have…

"Hey, Hinata, Naruto!"

Naruto froze in place, but Hinata started to turn around. Ice flooded into Naruto's veins as he realised the implications.

"No, wait Hinata-!"

But she ignored him.

"Oh, hello."

Naruto turned and saw that a smiling Ino was there, holding hands with Shikamaru, who looked at him weirdly. Naruto remembered accusing him of cheating on Hinata and could see why the shadow user would give him such a look. The blonde boy looked to his companion to see her reaction to the pair. A slight smile played on her face as she calmly looked at the pair. She certainly didn't look heart-broken, but maybe he had underestimated the shy kunoichi's acting ability.

"Hey, are you two on a date?" Ino asked them while Shikamaru sighed.

The pair went bright red and Naruto stumbled over his words in his reply.

"Wha- why would you… I don't even… buh?"

Ino raised her eyebrow at his unusual lack of words.

"We… we we're just going to get ramen." Hinata quickly said after realising that Naruto's conversational skills were sub-par at the moment.

"Ah, I see we've interrupted a crucial moment, we'll leave you two alone."

Ino threw Hinata an impish grin over her shoulder as she dragged Shikamaru off.

They walked the rest of the way to Ichiraku in silence. Naruto could only wonder how Hinata was coping.

_What a terrible thing,_ He thought, _loving someone who is in love with someone else._

"Just to let you know-" Hinata started, without looking at him, "I'm not in love with Shikamaru."

"What? Really?! But he totally fit your description!"

She sighed. Maybe all this was her fault; perhaps she had given him brain damage when she was beating him up.

"I wasn't being truthful. In fact the guy I like is not in any way how I described him. I was just mad at you at the time, I'm sorry for lying."

_And for beating you up._ She thought, rather than said.

"Oh, okay." He said, quietly.

_I see that you're going to make this hard for me, Hinata. But I swear I'll figure out who you like sooner or later, and when I do… um, I guess I'll set you up or something! _Naruto thought triumphantly.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter Six- God, Hinata, You're So Dense!**

"God, what do I do now? I have no leads!"

Naruto sighed as he stroked his face, which was covered in a light stubble.

_Funny, I didn't know I could grow facial hair…_

He started shaving, absentmindedly. After they had reached Ichiraku, Naruto had been unable to extract any more information about Hinata's crush. He went through his mental list of possible candidates.

_Kakashi- ew! I hope not! WAY too old for her. But I suppose he's a possibility, considering most stupid girls think he's "hot"… whatever._

_Shino- what would they do? Say nothing to each other… ever? Probably not. _

_Kiba- no way, the guy's too rowdy, arrogant, and loud, Hinata would never like a guy like that._

He winced as he nicked himself. A little blood seeped out of the cut before it was healed a few seconds later. He sighed, wiping a dab of red shaving cream off of his cheek.

This whole thing was exhausting, but he couldn't stop thinking about it all. Whenever he consciously tried to think of something else, he was plagued by images of Hinata being mistreated by this mystery man. Here the man had another woman in arm, sneering at a tearful Hinata. Now he was holding Hinata roughly, fist raised threateningly. Now he was leaving her alone, when she needed him the most.

_I never want that to happen to her. _

Naruto finished shaving and wiped his face with a towel. He looked at himself in the mirror. A tired-looking young man with a clean face looked back. He hoped to hell that this guy was good enough for Hinata. The guy had to be at least as good as him, Naruto reasoned. He left the bathroom and ran a hand through his wild scruff of hair. Hinata deserved such a guy, because she was a good girl, strong, nice, beautiful…

_Shut up._ He told himself as the disconcerting feelings he had started to have for the girl sprung up.

He felt like the worst friend in the world. Real friends can think of their platonic friend without having feelings that invariably lead to streams of guilt. He really couldn't help his feelings though, he had tried, unsuccessfully. Every time he saw her he remembered things he shouldn't like how her form felt, pressed against his, and how soft her lips were.

He shrugged the feeling off and thought more about the task at hand. Today was going to be a long day.

Hinata hadn't a care in the world. Well, she had one, but she was blocking the rather unsettling thought that Naruto may be at this very minute planning a new way to mortify her. She hadn't given him a single hint this time, so hopefully there would be no further incidents. She pushed the whole of those thoughts out of her mind as she caught sight of Sakura and Ino.

"Hey guys!"

"About time you get here, Hinata. What kept you so long? Too busy thinking about a certain someone?" Ino asked, with a grin.

Ino didn't know anything of the Naruto incidents, besides the failed confession, so she couldn't comprehend the sour look that appeared on Hinata's face. Ino threw Sakura a questioning look.

"Don't ask." She muttered.

"Whatever. Anyway, do you guys know why almost all the guys in the village are being called to the training grounds near the woods?"

Hinata started.

"What?"

"Well it's the weirdest thing but a bunch of guys in the village got this message to meet at the training grounds in a few minutes. Chouji got one but for some reason Shikamaru didn't. I have no idea what it could be; if it's for some kind of mission surely they'd want Shikamaru, right?"

Hinata looked around her, seeing many Shinobi around her age walking towards the same area.

"No, he couldn't possibly be…" She said, disbelievingly.

Ignoring her friends' odd looks, she started walking with the young men, towards the training grounds.

"Alright, who's next?"

People were gathered around, only about a quarter being the men that Naruto had summoned. A few men were standing on the sidelines, nursing some fresh wounds. Hinata stood, dumbfounded as she watched Naruto, alone in the middle of the field, taunt the crowd.

"Come on, if you guys want a chance with Hinata, you have to beat me first. I'm here to filter out all you losers!"

Her jaw dropped.

What. The. Hell.

"So, what, is he like your pimp now?"

A terse Neji stood besides her, with an amused Tenten. Hinata ground her teeth.

"I guess so." She told him.

A horrified Neji looked at Tenten for advice, but she offered none, as she was watching the few men that could get up the courage to rush at Naruto.

"Reiji, you're too greedy!" Naruto said before landing a hard hit to a dark haired boy's side.

"Hagane, you're too cold!"

He put a lanky boy out of commission.

"And you, Toshinori, you're um… ugly!"

A dark feeling settled into the pit of Hinata's stomach and she found her hands curling into fists.

"Haha, he's right about that one all right!" the Hokage guffawed while Shizune tried to shush her and at the same time pry the sake bottle from her hand.

"Come now, Tsunade, he'll hear you. Anyway, you have paperwork…" She was cut off as Hinata roughly took the bottle.

"Hey, givvit back!" Tsunade complained.

Hinata ignored her and threw the bottle back and, to the amazement of those around her, proceed to chug the whole of it. Her face took on a red tint. Throwing the empty bottle to the side, she staggered towards Naruto. He was focussed on a broad shouldered boy now.

"You, you're-"

"Stop it!" Hinata yelled.

Naruto froze in mid-punch.

"Oh, hi Hinata."

The guy he was after took this opportunity to skitter away. Naruto straightened up, looking a little guilty. Hinata made her way to him, enraged.

"How could you?" she asked him.

"W-what do you mean?"

"This! All this! Just what the hell do you think you're doing? How could you embarrass me like this?" she said, gesturing wildly.

"I didn't mean to embarrass you, I just wanted to make sure that these guys were worthy of you." He tried to explain.

"Who are you to make that kind of deshision for me?!"

She struck at him, rendering his left arm useless.

"Whoa, drama!" Tenten said on the sidelines.

"You show him, Hinata." Neji said.

Naruto kept dodging her strikes but she was getting closer and closer each time.

"This is probably going to take awhile, want to play go fish?" Tenten pulled out a pack of cards from her pocket.

Neji blushed profusely.

"Are you propositioning me?"

Tenten grinned.

"Later, Neji. I needja to tell me what Hinata's doin' with that chakra of hers." The Godaime requested, dashing Neji's little fantasies.

A little disheartened, he activated his byakugan and watched as Hinata landed another successful hit.

"Hm, that's interesting." He commented.

"What?"

"Well you know how the Hyuuga use a small amount of chakra in every strike to their enemy's chakra point?"

"Yesh…?"

"Well consider that a needle of chakra, and right now Hinata is driving a stake through Naruto's system." Neji explained.

Tsunade contemplated this for a moment.

"Fascinating."

By now, both of Naruto's arms laid useless by his sides. He looked kind of pathetic, actually. It was probably the incredibly remorseful look on his face that stopped Hinata from continuing.

"Damn it… let's just talk, okay?" she told him.

Looking behind her, she saw that the crowd had even increased in size since she had started fighting with him, some had even gotten popcorn. She led Naruto off somewhere where they could have a private conversation.

"Okay, Naruto, I need you to listen to me. I don't appreciate this whole thing, you can't just do this, especially without asking me." She told him.

"But I just need this guy of yours to be good enough." He tried to explain.

Hinata couldn't believe it, he wasn't letting this go. How could he fixate on something like this but be painfully oblivious about other things?

"Why do you even care? Why don't you do this for anyone else, huh?"

"Because I don't care about anyone as much!" Naruto yelled.

An echoing silence.

"Buh?" was the only sound to come from Hinata.

Naruto sighed in exasperation and shook his head.

"Yes, yes, it true! I'm sorry Hinata but it's incredibly obvious to everyone but you. I like you, a lot. And I've been trying to be a good friend to you and protect you from getting hurt by this guy who obviously doesn't deserve you. Maybe jealousy was a part of it, but I didn't want you to end up with some creep who wouldn't even pay you the respect you deserve. So I went through a lot of trouble, and maybe caused you some grief, but it was all because I care about you and want the best for you!"

Chest heaving from his emotional outburst, Naruto looked expectantly to Hinata. The girl, still drunk, frowned slightly.

"Huh?"

"You are exasperating, why can't you get that I love you! I don't care if you like this other guy more, just at least understand what I'm trying to tell you." Naruto said.

If his arms had been usable, he would have thrown them in the air, but instead they just flopped sadly at his side.

"So you're saying you love me, more than as friends love one another?" Hinata tentatively asked.

"Duh."

"That I'm one of your precious people, but I'm not just lumped in with everyone else?"

"Yeah," Naruto said impatiently.

"The kind of love that a man can feel for a woman, but not in the way of friendship?" Hinata continued.

"Yes, but why are you repeating all this?"

She looked at him calmly.

"Didn't we have this conversation before, except the other way around?" She asked him.

The confused look on his face gave way to realization as he recalled that night where she had looked so sad and he… had been so dense. How could he have not seen before? No wonder she repeatedly beat him up. Naruto looked up as Hinata drew closer to him.

"Hinata, I'm so-" he started but Hinata put a finger to his lips, shushing him.

"Don't apologize, Naruto. I'm just going to make it as clear as I can this time. I love you. In a sexual way, and don't you dare misinterpret that." She said firmly.

She closed the gap between him and engaged him in a kiss that made him forget that he was incapacitated. He was only cognizant of the moist warmth of her lips, tender, but demanding. Hinata deepened the kiss and Naruto couldn't help but think "Sexual way, huh?" Finally they parted for air, looking at each other with passion glazed eyes. Suddenly Naruto smiled, thinking of the image they must be making, him with his useless arms, and Hinata, slightly unbalanced from the sake.

"Alright Hinata, I'd better get you home."

She shook her head slightly.

"No, let's go to your place. We can wait for me to sober up and for you to be able to move your arms and then you can show me why you're the most qualified man to be with me…" she trailed off with a smirk.

As he let her lead him away there was only one thing that Naruto could think: _Hinata's awesome!_

The End.

* * *

Alternative ending:

Hinata: I love you, in a sexual way.

Naruto: Dur… I don't get anything. How did I put my pants on this morning?

Hinata: [performs a million hands of hakke]

KABOOM!

Naruto: [explodes]

And there you have it, last chapter, and I'm not even counting how long it's been since the last update. To my new readers, welcome; to my old ones, um well sorry.


End file.
